Main:Chellsie Memmel
West Allis, Wisconsin, USA |Row 4 title = Years on National Team |Row 4 info = 2003-2011 |Row 5 title = Club |Row 5 info = M-n-M Gymnastics |Row 6 title = Coach(es) |Row 6 info = Andy Memmel |Row 7 title = Current status |Row 7 info = Retired |Row 8 title = Twitter |Row 8 info = @CMemmel}}Chellsie Marie Memmel (born June 23, 1988 in West Allis, Wisconsin) is a retired American artistic gymnast. She is the 2005 World All-Around Champion, making her the third American woman, after Kim Zmeskal and Shannon Miller, to become World Champion in the All-Around. She is also a World Champion on the uneven bars (2003) and as part of the U.S. team (2003). She was a member of the United States' 2008 Olympic women's gymnastics team. With a total of seven World and Olympic medals, Memmel is tied with Shawn Johnson as the sixth most decorated U.S. female gymnast in history behind Simone Biles (19), Miller (16), Nastia Liukin (14), Alicia Sacramone (11), and Aly Raisman (10). Career Early Career Memmel began gymnastics as soon as she could walk. Both of her parents were gymnastics coaches and they encouraged her to play around in the gym and taught her basic gymnastics. When she was 8 years old they realized she would be better off working with a coach who had more expertise so they had her work with Jim Chudy of Salto Gymnastics. She began competing as an elite in 2000, and placed 17th all-around at the 2000 Junior National Championships, along with a 6th place finish on floor. 2003 Memmel began competing as a Senior International Elite gymnast in 2003. She placed third at the National Podium Meet and American Classic. She was invited to compete at the Pacific Challenge, a tri-meet with Canada and Australia. At that competition, she won the All-Around. At 2003 U.S. Nationals, Memmel was coming off of a hamstring injury which had limited her training time. She made mistakes during her floor routine and placed tenth in the all around. At the Worlds Selection Camp several weeks later, Memmel was selected to the Pan-American Games team, but not for the World Championships. Memmel won the all-around and the uneven bars at the Pan-American Games. She won a total of five medals overall. During this time, the gymnasts who had been chosen for the World Championships team were dealing with injuries and illnesses (Annia Hatch hurt her knee, Ashley Postell had a severe case of the flu and Courtney Kupets severely hurt her Achilles). At the time, Memmel was the third alternate to the World Championships, after Samantha Sheehan (although not used) and Terin Humphrey. Marta Karolyi, the National Team Coordinator, selected Memmel to compete at the World Championships. Memmel flew from the Pan American Games directly to the World Championships. Memmel led the American team in the team preliminaries, finishing second in the world as an individual and qualifying first among all Americans to the all-around competition. In the team finals, Memmel was the only American selected to compete in every event. The U.S. team won its first team gold medal at the World Championships. They won this medal without fielding a full team, competing with only five gymnasts in the team finals instead of six. On the day of team finals, Memmel earned the highest all-around score in the world and was now a favorite for All-Around gold. She became an individual World Champion on the uneven bars, tying with teammate Hollie Vise. 2004 In 2004, Memmel competed at the American Cup and placed third place behind Carly Patterson and Courtney McCool. At this time, she was considered a lock for the Olympic Team, along with Carly Patterson. During a training camp in April, Memmel broke the metatarsal in her foot while training a piked barani on beam. Memmel was unable to compete at Nationals or at the Olympic Trials. She petitioned for a chance to compete at the Olympics Selection camp, but she was not able to compete there to the best of her abilities. The head of the Olympic selection committee, Marta Karolyi, told Memmel not to train floor exercise or vault, but rather to focus on bars and balance beam, her stronger events. Memmel did as she was told. At the end of the selection, Memmel was named as one of the alternates to the U.S. Olympic team. After the Games, Memmel won the uneven bars at the 2004 World Cup Final. 2005 Memmel began the 2005 season at the American Cup, which did not have an All-Around competition that year. She won the uneven bars competition and placed third on beam. She placed fourth in the All-Around at the U.S. Classic. She won the silver medal in the All-Around at the U.S. Championships behind Nastia Liukin. Memmel was named to the team for the Pan-American Games, where she won the All-Around title and the individual gold medals on beam and uneven bars. Memmel was named to the 2005 World Championship team, along with teammates Nastia Liukin, Alicia Sacramone, and Jana Bieger. At Worlds, Memmel won the all-around title by 0.001 over Liukin. Memmel's win made her the third American woman, and the first since 1994, to win the All-Around at the World Championships. At the 2005 World Championships, Memmel also won the silver medals on balance beam and uneven bars. After her success at the 2005 Worlds, Memmel decided to go pro, thereby giving up her NCAA eligibility. 2006 Memmel began 2006 by competing at the Pacific Alliance Championships, where she tied in the All-Around with Nastia Liukin. Memmel injured her shoulder while training an overshoot at the Pacific Alliance Championships. She decided to not compete at the U.S. Classic in 2006 to protect her shoulder. Two weeks later, she competed watered downneeded routines at the U.S. Championships, where she placed 4th in the All-Around. She was named to the 2006 World Championships team. At the 2006 World Championships, Memmel was still dealing with her injured shoulder. The U.S. did well in qualifying. Memmel qualified first for the all around finals and also qualified to the uneven bars and floor event finals as well. Memmel fell on her Hindorf release move on bars in the second rotation. On the balance beam, Memmel was able to steady herself from falling off beam when she landed a front tuck with one foot completely off the beam. Memmel's fall from the uneven bars reaggravated her shoulder injury from earlier in the year, and Memmel was left with a tear in her shoulder. Memmel later withdrew from the all-around competition and from event finals. 2007 Memmel was still recovering from her shoulder injury in August, 2007, when the Nationals were held. She competed on the floor exercise on the first day of the U.S. Championships. After the success of the 2007 World Team in Stuttgart, Memmel decided to make her all-around comeback at the Good Luck Beijing International Invitational, a test meet for the Olympic Games. The gymnasts competed in the same arena and on the same apparatuses that would be used at the Olympics. Memmel placed fifth in the all-around and third on beam, where she performed new skills including a front aerial to prone mount. Her uneven bars routine did not qualify her for event finals. Following the Beijing test event, Memmel traveled to the Toyota Cup in Toyota City Japan where she won the gold medal on floor exercise and the silver on balance beam. After her first All-Around competition in a year, Memmel said, "I'm not all the way back yet -- my floor was basically the same, but there are a few more things I want to add.... For the routines that I did, I'd say I was competing at about 80 percent. But in the gym, I'm at 90. My shoulder is good. My ankle is healed." 2008 In 2008, Memmel continued to work on perfecting her beam and floor routines while also raising the difficulty on her uneven bars routine. In May, 2008 she competed at an international competition along with other gymnasts who had not competed earlier in 2008 and wanted to prove their Olympic readiness to Márta Károlyi. In June, Memmel competed in the U.S. National Championships, placing third behind Liukin and Johnson in the all-around. Memmel did well on uneven bars and balance beam, and competed a new, upgraded floor routine which included the Dos Santos skill she had competed in earlier years. At the U.S. Olympic Trials held two weeks after Nationals, she again performed well on bars and beam, and received a standing ovation for her floor exercise routine on the final night of competition. Memmel was named to the selection camp where the U.S. Olympic Team would be chosen. Memmel was named to the 2008 Olympic Team at the selection camp in New Waverly, Texas. Despite giving herself whiplash and having to stop in the middle of her first routine, the floor exercise, Memmel competed on beam later that day. On the final day of the selection camp, Memmel nailed a bars routine and landed a double twisting yurchenko for the first time in competition since 2006. On August 3, 2008, it was announced by USA gymnastics that Memmel had injured her ankle during training in Beijing. It was announced that the injury was not major, and she is still expected to compete, though she will be limited to one event: uneven bars. Later on, however, it was revealed that the injury was not in fact a sprain, but a broken bone, covered up as a sprain. Even with this injury, Memmel competed on the uneven bars in the team qualification round but fell. At the team finals, she also performed on the uneven bars, that time a clean routine. 2011 On July 23, 2011, Memmel returned to competition at the CoverGirl Classic in Chicago, Illinois, where she won the silver medal in the all-around (56.95). Memmel placed fourth on floor (13.65) and fifth on balance beam (14.7), and she tied with gymnast Bridgette Caquatto for fifth on vault (14.2). At August's 2011 Senior National Championships in St. Paul, Minnesota, Memmel earned the silver medal on balance beam, with a two-night score of 30. She finished night one of the competition in third place all-around (57.35), with a first-place finish on beam (15.25). On night two, Memmel slipped to an eighth-place finish in the all-around (109.85), after she dislocated her shoulder during her bars routine and did not finish the routine. She later headed to the Karolyi Ranch in New Waverly, Texas, to participate in both selection camps for the 2011 World Championships team. Rather than being named to the 2011 Worlds team, Memmel was named to the team for the 2011 Pan American Championships, scheduled to take place in Guadalajara, Mexico in October. Memmel had a similar experience with the 2003 World Team selection camps, which she also attended while coming back from injury. At the conclusion of those selection camps, Memmel was named to the Pan American team rather than the Worlds team, though she was later named to the Worlds team as well. Memmel subsequently withdrew from the 2011 Pan Am Games team, so that she could continue rehabbing her injured shoulder. Soon after her return from the second selection camp, Memmel underwent surgery to repair a torn biceps tendon near her right shoulder. 2012 In April, it was announced that Memmel backed out of the national team training camp. Memmel's first meet of 2012 was the Secret US Classic in May. She only competed on balance beam, where she fell on her front half and Arabian-Korbut combination. She placed 21st on beam. She petitioned into the National Championships, but was denied. This means that, since she did not compete at Nationals, she had no shot of being on the Olympic team for London. However, Memmel was present at the National Championships, but as a judge. She has gone on to judge at the National Championships and Mexico Open in 2013. Memmel participated in the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions from September 8 to November 18. On November 14, Memmel announced her retirement on Twitter.Retirement confirmation In August 2013, Memmel married mechanical engineer Kory Maier. The couple welcomed a son, Dashel Dean Maier, in February 2015. Medal Count Floor Music 2003-2005 - "Dancing In the Light" 2006-2008 - "The Bongo Song" 2011 - "Played Alive" by Safriduo References